God’s blessings often come in unlikely places: gravesides, hospital beds, or night wrestlings.
After Jacob’s night of wrestling with the heavenly Man, we read a curious thing: “Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him” (Gen 32:31). It was like the sunrise was just for Jacob that morning! A new day had dawned for him, and everything had changed. He had a new honesty. In Genesis 27, we read of his being asked the question, “Who are you, my son?” Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn” (vv 18-19). But this night the Lord said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob” (32:27). Just like us, the moment we confess to the Lord who we really are, the sinner Jesus died for, He gives us new names: saints, believers, sons! In fact, as Jacob’s new name Israel means, “he will prevail with God,” we can now “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). Like Jacob—with a new honesty, a new relationship with God, a new name, a new walk, and a new perspective on life—for the Christian, “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor 5:17). A new perspective? Yes, the man who had lined up his wives and children and servants and livestock as a series of buffers between himself and his supposed adversary, now “he crossed over before them” (33:3)! Why, he had seen the face of God and his life had been preserved (32:30) so it put seeing Esau’s face in perspective. “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe” (Prov 29:25). It was one thing to see the company of angels and call the locale Mahanaim; now he calls this place Peniel, “For,” he said, “I have seen God face to face” (v 30). Can you, like Jacob, look back on your life and point to places where, like verse 29, He blessed you there?